What is a family budget? When making this family budget worksheet it took me a while to figure out why a family budget is any different than our normal household budget. The reason it’s confusing is because there are really two types of family budgeting.
The first is basically a list of income and expenses for the entire family. It is similar to the free budget downloads we discuss on another post. It lists all income and all expenses for a family, and you can fill it in each month, forecast it, and break down the costs in many different formats. It is a must have way for any family.
The second type, which I focus on today, is a budget that is used to allocate and measure the spending for each family member. This type of spreadsheet does not include all of your fixed expenses like housing and utilities. Instead, it includes the expenses that are specific to each person in your household. It is used to allocate your monthly budget across family members. It can help you set clothing budgets and other spending habits for each individual, while keeping your overall budget under control.
We’ll discuss how to use and download the free budget template we provide below, but first you can check out this video about how we made and how you can use this for your family, to see if it’s what you’re looking for.
How to Use Our Family Budget Spreadsheet
Using this type of budget is pretty easy. The template is set up so that you enter the monetary figures in the yellow cells. And the blue cells can easily be changed to meet your family’s needs. Start by downloading the worksheet with the link below. Then, add the names of your family members to the top. Next, edit the expenses you want to budget for on the left side of the sheet.
The hardest part about this is picking a monthly budget amount for your family. In our example, we chose $500. When you have this figure set, you’ll need to start allocating the amount to each expense for each family member. Once you’ve done this, the totals will automatically be calculated for you.
When you have your budget finished, you should make a copy of the budget and fill in the actual amount that you spent (we show how to do this in the video above). That way you can see how closely you are sticking to your budget and whether or not you need to make adjustments or additions.
Download Our Family Budget Template
Here is where you can download the spreadsheet that we used in the video above. After downloading and using it, please leave us a comment below. We are always looking to improve these sheets.
To download, click on the button above and select “save as”. Then, download to your computer and open with any spreadsheet program. If you need a free spreadseet program, visit Open Office or you can use Google Docs.
We hope you enjoy using our free budget download. Don’t forget to leave us a comment below.
